The hated 4k sprint pyramid

I hate how the 4k sprint pyramid (250-500-750-1000-750-500-250 with 30s per 50m rest) makes me feel.  I struggle badly in the middle 1k and nearly turned to jelly the first time I did it.  The target pace was 1:42.8 and it turned out like this:

1:42.6 / 29    250        Hard to get going
1:42.7 / 29    500    164    Nasty, next tthree will be grim at that pace.
1:42.7 / 29    750    171    Eased in to it and came steadily down to split.
1:44.3 / 29    1,000    175    Insanely hard.
1:42.7 / 29    750    177    Easier than expected, but still hard!
1:38.7 / 32    500    176    Hard, but OK, more than I expected in last 200m
1:29.3 / 42    250    174    Aaaargh
1:41.8    4,000   

The middle 1k was agonising but I stuck to it and got through, hoping to make up the time on the last two.  I was really pleased with the last 250m under 1:30 :)